The Cowboys played a good game on Sunday. They were solid on offense, they were good for most of the game on defense, and they were good on special teams. Unfortunately they needed to be great to beat the Patriots at New England. The Cowboys didn't need everyone on the team to be great. But they needed one or two great performances. They didn't get one.
Tony Romo was just ok. He threw a bad interception early in the game but found his rhythm in the second quarter and played pretty well for the rest of the game. Demarcus Ware had two sacks but couldn't come up with a big play on the final New England drive. Sean Lee had a nice interception but finished with just 6 tackles.
I could go on but you get the point. A lot of players had good games. But no one was a difference maker for the Cowboys today. And Tom Brady was the difference maker for the Patriots. The Cowboys had no answer for his heroics on the final Patriot drive.
It is a little hard to swallow the fact that the Cowboys just lost to a better team. But facts are facts. The Cowboys forced 4 Patriot turnovers. But they couldn't cash in with touchdowns and that was the biggest difference in the game. When the Patriots needed a touchdown at the end of the game they got one.
Now that the Cowboys are 2-3 the Lions loss hurts even more. It would have been easier to stomach a 3-2 record. But 2-3 is the reality the team faces. Fortunately there isn't a team running away with the NFC East. The path to the playoffs for the Cowboys is looking like an NFC East championship. That won't be impossible but they need to start winning some games. They should get back in the win column next week against the Rams.
I guess I'm tired of this. I can't keep saying that we played great and this and that when we keep losing. Sure we could have been 5-0 but we also quite easily could be 0-5 at this point which is frightening. They got 4 turnovers yesterday which is unheard of against the Pats, and all that did was enable them to keep the score close. And the play calling at the end? Now they're worried that Romo will throw a pick-six in crunchtime so they get conservative and run the ball giving it back to the Pats with plenty of time left on the clock. A bad trend to watch. Thought we had this game. Again. I'm not being a pessimist but I think logically we're looking at an 8-8 season and I hope thats enough to win the NFC East. I keep hearing that this team will be one to contend with but I'm not seeing any signs of it as the weeks goes by.
ReplyDeleteThis game was frustrating because it looked to me like Garrett lost faith in Romo. You can't do it. All the little critics and judges got what they wanted, Garrett took the ball out of Romo's hands in the fourth and they threw away a great performance by the defense. Garrett doesn't have a choice. That's his QB. He's got to play to win, he can't call the game not to lose. Shovel pass? Three straight runs to seal the deal when the Cowboys haven't been able to run the ball all game?
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